Some years ago I met a Minister who had spent several years under his Pastor doing everything from washing his car, cutting his grass, bringing him breakfast every Sunday morning to his Church office, cleaning the Church, organizing services and special events, ministering to the youth, teaching home Bible studies, doing hospital visitations, doing repairs around the Church, teaching the adult Sunday school class, ministering when the Pastor was gone on trips or conventions, and more importantly: he was trained in doctrine, practice, and order.
I listened to the Pastor tell me of his love for his Pastor. Telling me how he felt bad if he did not take out the trash after a Church event and saw the Pastor doing it. How he could not honor any man above his Pastor and respected him highly. Here I sat listening to the Minister tell me of his life for over 20 years. I asked him if he had any complaints against his Pastor? He replied that if he did he did not remember. And then he said:
"Pastor Reckart, I was a proper son to my father in the Gospel. Even as a natural son to his father, my Pastor was my spiritual father. If he made any mistakes I did not look for them. I was a proper son. My Pastor fathered me."
Much has been written about Ministers being fathered. And much has been written about men who go out to be a Minister who were never fathered. They were never a son under any spiritual father. The most of them are bastard sons who have no idea who their spiritual father is. They cannot say this or that man of God was my spiritual father. Ask them who their spiritual father is and they have none. Ask where their home church is and they have none. Ask which spiritual father to contact for a fathered reference and they have none to give. In fact, most I have met claim they have never submitted to a spiritual father to correct or teach them. The many Pastors they have had were never a spiritual father to them. If you contact any or all of the former pastors of these men none of them would be able to give a good report. They are without discipline, self called, self ordained, self sent, haughty, smart-mouthed, and usually messed up in all manner of false doctrine. They are train wrecks. They ordain themselves prophets, pastors, evangelists, bishops, and apostles. They go out into the world to make a name for themselves not knowing that all that they will accomplish will be for nothing having run in vain. It has been my practice as a Pastor not to preach men who have not been fathered. I have tried to father some men who were not mine, in a step-father position and have found that many of these men have a bad seed in them. In time the most of them turn out tares among the wheat and they destroy souls when you have to pluck them up and cast them out.
To be fathered gives a man his spiritual pedigree. He has a foundation. He is a proper and respectful son. He will labor with the Pastor as a son with his father. He will be trained up in the way he should go. And he will not go until he has been properly trained and sent with blessings. He will bring respect to his father and not shame him or being on him a reproach. He will not bring an evil report against his father. And he will not destroy his father's Church to have one of his own (this is spiritual incest). He will not rob from his spiritual father any tithing or offerings. He will abide in his fellowship all the days of his life. Nothing will come between a son and his spiritual father, NOTHING!
Being fathered gives a man his spiritual foundation. As he matures in the Gospel he will learn why his father did not allow him to do everything he wanted. Why he was not allowed to go here or there. Why he was taught doctrine and the importance in continuing therein without wavering and going astray. And at last he will thank God for his spiritual father even if when he looks back some things were strict, stern, tight, and rigid. But in it all he learned his own spiritual man was fathered by a great man of God. And now he can look about him at the ruined heap of other ministers who never would submit to a spiritual father and saw the ways of fools.
Spiritual fathers never claimed to be perfect, they only claimed God put them over the lives of some people to save their souls and train them how to live for God respectfully. Show me a smart-mouthed preacher and I show you a man who was not fathered. Show me a preacher who makes his boast no man is over him and I will show you a fool. Show me a preacher who has not been a son to a spiritual father for several years and I will show you a spiritual rebel acting like a teenage run-away. Yes, there are many preachers today who think themselves somewhat but they are not sons of any spiritual father. I have seen so many of these young men come and go seeking their own welfare and glory and never submitted to any real man of God.
Myself, I was fathered by a great Pastor. He gave me my foundation. Yes, I cut his grass, washed his car, cleaned the Church, taught Sunday school, taught the adult class, ministered when the Pastor went to conventions or vacations. I was a proper son. That is why God has blessed me with so many revelations and enlightenment. I have been a faithful son. O yes, I saw my Pastor do things or say things I questioned: but I never allowed them to get to the level it gave me an excuse to run off and do my own thing, or I now had proof he was not a great man of God, or I could now condemn him and refuse him to rule over me. And when he died, I went under another man of God and submitted myself to be trained even more. And from this submission I was fathered in the Gospel and remain a man of God properly raised in the Apostolic faith. I am a proper son, and I know other proper sons when I see them.
Some cannot go back and be fathered by previous pastors. They never submitted to any man. They have already ruined themselves being victims of their own lusts and desire to be self-made great. These can only corect themselves by going to some man of God and sitting down until they are fathered. If they do not, they run in vain and accomplish nothing that will last. When it all crashes about them and they see they have nothing holy to present to the Lord, then the fool that they are will realize his wasted life. He has run in vain. A true fathered son will not waste or lose time being fathered. He will redeem to himself time by the experience he will learn. And when at last he goes forth it will be with a blessing. This cannot be replaced. Sure, many of these fatherless men can join in renegade fellowships but all of them together are not equal to a fathered son.
If you are a young man seeking the will of God, I advise you to find a spiritual father and submit yourself. Prepare to spend many years as as son. In the natural we do not release sons from the family as mature until after they have reached their 18th year. A real spiritual son will remain with his spiritual father for many years. He will work and labor with his father in the Gospel as a son. As a son with his father he will not miss any blessing of God nor will be lose any opportunity to use his gifts and talents. If you are a minister who has not been fathered and do not know where to do this, and you do not know who to submit to, maybe Tampa Florida is a place to consider. This is one father in the Gospel who will not disgrace his sons and has never disgraced any minister who has ever been under him. Sure, I am strict, stern at times, rigid, and even lording at times over my sons. But then I am a father to my house. And since I know how to rule my house I can apply proper rules in the house of God.
Bishop Reckart
A Father In The Gospel
I promise to be there for my sons in the Gospel
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